New York Times Editorial, "A New G.O.P. Excuse for Doing Nothing": Obama's "Long March," I Kid You Not

The Red Army fears not the trials of the Long March
And thinks not of a thousand mountains and rivers.

— From "The Long March," a Poem by Mao Zedong, September 1935

Pitiful.

This is the word that best describes the most recent New York Times editorial entitled "A New G.O.P. Excuse for Doing Nothing" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/opinion/a-new-gop-excuse-for-doing-nothing.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0), which, acknowledging the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act, tells of Obama's "long march":

"But just as these blunders are not the end of the health reform, they will also, in the end, not stop the long march to immigration reform, more jobs or desperately needed improvements to education, transportation and other fundamental functions."

Who writes this "stuff"? Perhaps the editorial board should have another look at Gail Collins's last Times op-ed entitled  "Who’s Sorry Now?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/opinion/collins-whos-sorry-now.html?_r=0), in which she writes:

"The chaos surrounding the rollout of health care reform is a terrible blow to people who’ve been standing behind the president through thin and thin. They had already come to grips with the fact that the guy who once taught constitutional law wasn’t going to protect their privacy from government snoops. That their old peace candidate really loved the idea of shooting people down with drones. That he was probably never going to be able to deliver on serious immigration reform, or gun control or even expanded preschool.

But there was still affordable health care, a goal that had been eluding presidents since Teddy Roosevelt, which had required so many breathtaking leaps of political faith to pass and protect. One achievement so big it was pretty much enough.

And then the website didn’t work and longstanding promises were broken and the whole thing was turning into a joke on the Country Music Association Awards."

Even a stalwart Obama supporter such as Collins admits that the failures and scandals of the Obama administration extend far beyond Obamacare.

But this editorial only gets better. Informing us that Republicans "are in favor only of shutdowns and sequesters and repeals," it concludes:

"Democrats may be stumbling right now, but at least they are trying."

Well, I don't care much for Democrats, Republicans or any politicians for that matter, but "at least they are trying"? Perhaps, Democrats should abandon "Hope" ("Abandon hope all ye who enter here," Dante's Divine Comedy) and "Change" it to "At Least We're Trying" as their 2014 midterm elections slogan. Let's see how far that takes them on Obama's Long March.